The Importance of Sustainable Fashion

The fashion industry holds many titles in the world: the largest industry, the most profitable industry and the most harmful industry. From cancerous pesticides to modern day slavery, the foundations of fast fashion are hardly sustainable. In fact, these methods are damaging our environment beyond recognition and the public’s preference to turn a blind eye is as unethical as the decision makers at the top of the fashion food chain. Read on the find out why sustainability within the fashion industry is so important…

Protect the Environment

Sustainably helps to reduce the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment. One may even argue that the fast fashion industry cannot be labelled as ignorant because they are fully aware of the damage that they leave in their wake and simply choose to turn a blind eye in favour of profit. Water pollution is a big consequence of the chemicals used within fast fashion production which is damaging habitats for animals and making drinking water unsafe for consumption. Sustainability within the fashion industry aims to eliminate the toxins found in clothing production and ultimately reduce the impact it has on our environment.

Clothing Quality

The fast fashion industry relies heavily on mass production, the manufacture of large quantities of standardised product, but the increase in consumer demand means that quality and durability has been sacrificed in order to get the attire onto the shop floor on time. Experts suggest that garments that are made by foreign labour make it onto the western high street within a matter of days, calling into the question the longevity of the finished product. Sustainability is often seen within slow fashion, where quality takes centre stage, in order to craft clothing that can withstand the test of time.

Ethical Employment

The reason why the fashion industry has been able to expand across the globe so effectively is because of its reliance on unethical labour that some may even call modern day slavery. After all, the majority of the clothing in western stores are created by foreign aid, usually women, who are forced to work in sub-standard conditions in return for an incredibly unsustainable wage. Workers may be forced to work long hours without breaks because their production targets are unsustainably high.

Sustainability is defined as the ‘ability to be maintained at a certain rate’ however the fast fashion industry is has thrown all their eggs into one basket; relying on mass production and cheap labour in order to keep themselves afloat. These foundations are incredibly unstable as production will eventually fail to keep up with consumer demand. To find out more about our ethical fashion philosophy, get in contact with a member of the 2forjoy team today.